Chapter 06: Falling Dreams
By Jessie/Dory
Author Note: Thanks for the reviews! I won't be able to update while I'm in New York, but I'll try to get another chapter up as soon as I can, just don't expect that to be too soon! And for those of you confused about the Pink Llamas – just go to (don't have a www) and you may – sort of – understand a little more. I don't have time to reply to each review, but thanks so much for those of you leaving messages, I'm absolutely loving and appreciating it! Also – eventually there will be Jimmy/Cindy parts, but don't expect that much except for Cindy thinking a lot about Jimmy, it's hard having Jimmy/Cindy moments when they aren't around each other. Lol. Enjoy!
If you've ever had the embarrassment of falling on your face in front of your friends, or even on your butt, you know suddenly your face goes red and you feel like an idiot. Take that percentage of 'fun' and multiply it by two hundred people, add an expensive dress, and add a flight of stairs squared. That sort of equals the amount of embarrassment Cindy endured within 1 minute and 35 seconds of being in the banquet.
It all went completely downhill from there, as if she wasn't all ready falling down hill.
Cindy didn't want to lift her head up, she wanted to pretend this was all a horrible nightmare and she was actually sleeping in her nice and cozy bed. There was no princess, there was no switching, there was no humiliating fencing, and there was no banquet. She opened her eyes and slowly lifted her head to see a lot of feet in expensive shoes.
'Darn it -,' was all she could manage to think before she was suddenly whisked up to her feet. She pushed the little amount of dirt off her dress and expected to come face to face with a body guard, or perhaps Miss Jones to tell her off for tripping. But she didn't, she only saw Josh, who was in a nice outfit suitable for waiting. Since his mother did work for the royal family, he had more fun being someone to wait on people than being waited on. Though Cindy had to admit he looked rather – dare she thought it? Hot, dreamy – a lot like how Jimmy looked on Valentines Day, she sighed at the memory.
But she was waiting for some sort of snappy comment back from him – that's what Jimmy would do. However, instead he said with a smile, "You alright Miss Kingsley? You took quite a fall there. Would you like me to escort you to your table?"
She nodded and smiled back, "Thank you, Josh."
He gave her an odd look as he held out his arm and she took it, for a moment he was silent and then finally spoke, "You never call me Josh."
Uneasily, Cindy gulped – well Victoria never mentioned specific things like that. How was she to get through this without knowing really what Victoria would respond with? She took a deep breath and then sat down, not responding to him, it was rude, but there was nothing else she could do. Things seemed to be starting up as a speaker tried to begin his speech. Josh dashed away quietly to be next to the other waiters and waitresses.
"Excuse me," the speaker started to speak, but there was still a mumble in the room. Cindy grabbed her fork and started tapping on her wine glass to quiet everyone down.
Cling, cling, cling, – CRASH! Cindy's eyes went wide as she stared at the now broken glass, her fork had broken it as if it were a scene straight out of Princess Diaries. She laughed nervously and a waiter quickly walked up and swept up the glass and gave her another one, "It's all right your highness, happens all the time."
She gave a nervous smile, fairly certain he was just being nice and that chances were that something like this rarely happened. She then exhaled her held breath and the rest of the room finally settled down. The speeches began, but Cindy's mind wandered as she pretended to be interested. She looked at the decorations, the chandelier, the gorgeous table settings – it looked like it would be more fun to set up or play with than to just look at while listening to someone drool on about some sort of parking meter issue.
Her eyes glanced at the waiters that stood at the edges of the room, all standing absolutely still and looked as if they were listening intently. Except for – could it be? Cindy almost blushed, but she turned her head away instantly. Josh was starring – at her.
She knew he must have been questioning her intently – she aimlessly wondered whether he liked Victoria or her more. Oh what was she thinking? He had no idea who Cindy Vortex was – he thought, or at least she was hoping he was thinking, that she was the same Victoria – Princess Victoria.
Victoria slumped onto Cindy's bed, absolutely exhausted from the work. The dishes were sort of done – they had fallen and several had broken. Though she was able to catch most of them, it was hard trying to get them back in the counter. After being yelled at by some lady she didn't even know, she eventually was sent to her room and she couldn't have been happier. Cindy's room was already fairly clean and she didn't want to mess too much around so she hid some things in easy to locate spots and was done with it.
She sat up in her bed and looked at the digital clock on the desk, it was around 8:40 by this time, and she was so bored. She knew Cindy would try to call her when she got to bed – which Victoria knew was suppose to be around 10. What to do until then? It seemed like there was nothing that is until she spotted Cindy's computer. She smiled with relief and sat down – seeing a sign on to ROL (Retroville Online, of course) popped up and she noticed Cindy's password was saved.
"Well, it's not like I'd be under a false identity – I'm already pretending to be her," she noted thoughtfully out loud, and then clicked the sign on button. It wouldn't hurt – after all, there was a banquet at this time of night and Cindy wouldn't be able to be online even if she could get near a computer.
Connecting –
Verifying Screen Name and Password -
Starting Services –
"Here we go -," Victoria smiled and looked at the buddy list. To her surprise, Cindy had a lot of people signed on; Victoria barely had that number on her own buddy list. Several Ims popped up – one from a girl with the name "QueenLibs11", another "UltraLords1Fan", and one she assumed was from Jimmy because it said "GeniusAtWork".
She scanned the Ultra Lord one, she knew of the show, but not much of it. The person, who we all know is Sheen, was just saying hi and wondering something about if she thought Libby would want to go to an Ultra Lord convention because he was too shy to ask.
The one she figured was from Jimmy just said 'hey', she figured it was much more safe to respond to him, but didn't just yet. Just in case for some reason she had to sign off fast, people could always assume her screen name was accidentally turned on when she turned on the computer.
What was written in the box from QueenLibs made Victoria gasp out loud and stare blankly at the screen, completely feeling dumbfounded and horrified.
"Hey Cindy! How was Princess Trekking today? I hope you saw her – because I sure did. She told off some weird guard guys who were trying to steal my family's turkey in the middle of downtown! It was so weird because they didn't recognize her until they showed her a ring. I didn't get much of a glimpse of her, but I swear she had this eerie resemblance to you! At first I thought you were standing up for me – but then suddenly she's saying she's the Princess and once everyone got food back, she was gone. So weird – I bet the whole school will be talking about it tomorrow. So anyways – how was your day?"
Victoria hesitated, should she tell Cindy about this? She'll probably be really mad at her for practically blowing it for both of them – but, she had to do the right thing. It was in her nature, it was practically in her blood!
She looked at the three ims, and decided she would answer them.
She told Sheen that he should ask Libby because she probably would say yes if she likes him that much back. She just said hi to Jimmy, and then simply responded to Libby, "That's weird – well my day was good." She wasn't sure if it would be wise to continue talking so she put up an away message and began to pace around the room.
'It'll all work out,' she thought to herself, not like anyone was in the room to hear her anyways, 'That girl didn't even completely think I was Cindy – so it should be just fine. I'll just wear different clothing tomorrow and it'll all be ok.' She sighed and put her hands on her window and stared out, suddenly jumping when she saw that right across the street Jimmy was at his desk in his room. She smiled, Jimmy reminded her a lot of Josh – they were competitive clearly, and somewhat of show-offs. But deep down they were both very nice, very sweet guys. She was glad her accent was not very strong unless she happens to be angry; otherwise Jimmy would have caught her the moment she said, "Can't".
She watched him for a while, and then nearly jumped out of her shoes when he looked up from his work, smiled, and waved. Nervously, Victoria smiled and waved back, then closed the blinds quickly and grabbed a book randomly off the self and sat in bed.
"Reading will take my mind off things -," Victoria looked at the title of the book she had randomly grabbed which was, of course, The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain, and she sighed deeply, "Should have seen that coming."
She got up and turned off the screen name, sat in bed and opened the book. Oh how she wished Cindy would be able to call soon.
Cindy aimed carefully, held her fork in just the right way and stabbed her pray – which happened to be a grape. Comically, she missed the grape entirely and it hopped onto the table, she sighed dejectedly.
"Uhm, you know you can use your hands," a lady sitting next to Cindy smiled.
In response, Cindy just blinked for a moment then laughed nervously, "Of course – I knew that."
The lady nodded, almost apologetically, "Of course your majesty."
Cindy smiled nervously and with her thumb and index finger, grabbed a different grape and popped it into her mouth.
A little while ago, music had been playing and numerous people had gotten up and started dancing. Cindy hadn't been paying much attention, but she did notice that most of them really seemed to know what they were doing. As if it were all choreographed for a movie or musical. She absentmindedly stared at the center pieces and listened to the soft music float through her ears. She nearly jumped out of her seat when there was a tap at her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, you ok?" A voice said and she turned around in her seat to see Josh.
Cindy smiled, "Oh – yeah, I just didn't hear you coming."
Josh nodded, "Victoria," Cindy smiled realizing he was calling her – well not her per say, but Victoria, by her first name, "would you like to dance?"
A flush of red spread across Cindy's cheeks, and she held out her hand and he took it, "Yes, actually I would, Josh."
He lead her to the dance floor and they danced closely for a while, in her mind she really thought of herself dancing with someone else, but Josh was nice enough. He dipped her, and then went back to dancing closely. It was a very nice dance, and Cindy could tell he had lessons at some point in his life.
"Hmm," he mumbled as he held her hands and she tried to keep up to his feet – not even knowing the dance that was quite difficult. How she wished she had taken those dancing lessons when her mother had suggested it, but no, she had to be all unique and junk, taking tai chi and river dance lessons instead. Not that she ever doubted her choice, but knowing specific dances that would prove that she was Victoria would have helped right now.
"Something wrong?" she asked, and then thought in her head 'foot here, other foot there – gah! Don't step on his foot!'
He shrugged slightly, spinning her out and then bringing her back into his chest, "Nothing – well, sort of. You just, seem different today."
Cindy blinked and swayed to the rhythm, "Different – how?"
"Well, that whole thing in fencing, you calling me by my first name, you seem so awkward about everything, those things. Actually, you realize this is the first time you've accepted dancing with me? Usually you laugh and say some sort of sarcastic comment. What makes tonight so different? OW!"
"Sorry!" Cindy accidentally stepped hard on his foot with her heel – she stammered for a moment and let her hands disconnect from his. She took a deep breath, and then came a little closer, "Nothing is wrong – absolutely nothing, really."
He nodded with disbelief, "Right, your majesty."
Cindy cocked her head and they began dancing again, "You don't have to call me that you know."
"Call you what?"
She shrugged, "Majesty, Kingsley, highness, whatever. You can call me C-," she caught her self, "Victoria, if you want."
He nodded, "I'd like that."
The continued to dance late into the evening, but in their minds they were dancing with different people.
"NO!" Victoria screamed as she woke up from a nightmare in Cindy's bed. She breathed in and out deeply, realizing it was just a dream and things were ok. She had continued reading The Prince and The Pauper and had drifted asleep with the book on her chest. She looked at the clock – now reading 9:56 PM. She sighed happily; Cindy should be calling at any time now.
She got up and grabbed a nearby paper and wrote down everything she remembered in her dream, she read it out loud and it seemed puzzling to her. Her words were scribbled, yet still legible.
"I was in a dark hall way – I think it was me anyways. I was talking about my father being dead to Josh, and someone grabbed me and Josh disappeared. It looked like the Captain, but even stronger than I remember – he was saying I would have to follow his orders or he'd kill me, Josh, Cindy, and Cindy's friends. For some reason I had no choice but to do his bidding. I was in some weird vehicle going across the ocean, crying to someone I didn't recognize, reaching out as if trying to capture something that had flown way past my reach. Suddenly we're in my castle – my actual castle, back at home. My friends are thrown into endless pits and the Captain and many other guards are all holding up large axes. They all are wearing dark robes like they are grim reapers, and seem to be ready to swing around their axes. Suddenly, a bright light appears in front of me and I'm in my father's old throne. There are so many colors and bright things going around it's hard to describe. An oversized crown is falling and heading for me, I scream when I see it, but I'm suddenly chained by an invisible force. I'm screaming 'STOP, I command you!' but the crown keeps falling. There's a lot of sound going around me, mainly cruel laughing, but I don't know where it's coming from. I'm flailing about, trying to avoid the crown, but then it gets smaller, and it's about to land on my head. Suddenly knives come out of the bottom of the crown and then all I see is red, and just hear a lot of cheering – that's when I woke up and screamed 'NO'."
She exhaled her held breath and realized she had cold sweat pouring down her face. She instantly grabbed a tissue and whipped it off, and whispered, "But – what does it all mean?"
The phone rang suddenly, and in shock Victoria dropped her paper and pencil. She took a deep breath and hesitantly picked them up an d set them on the desk, then grabbing the head piece of Cindy's phone, putting it on and clicking 'answer'.
"Hello?" Victoria asked hopefully.
"Victoria?" Cindy asked as she whispered into the phone from her bedroom. She wasn't quite certain how sound proof the room was, nor if the phone was easy to tap into, but at least if her mom had picked up the phone then she could just say wrong numner.
"Cindy, is that you? Oh thank GOD! I just had this horrible nightmare -," but Victoria was cut off.
Cindy shook her head even if Victoria couldn't see her doing so, "Never mind that – how did your day go? Is anyone suspicious? I think your Josh friend may be catching on – speaking of which he basically caught me when I tripped down the stairs at the banquet. He was very nice about the whole thing though, and he's a great dancer -."
"Wait a second – you danced with Josh?" Victoria's mouth gaped open, "But it's practically tradition for us to snob one another off – he'll think I'm going soft! Did you defeat him in fencing? Oh PLEASE say you did ..," Victoria started pacing back in forth, mumbling something in French, which she was fluent in.
"Well – no, I tried to put my tai chi moves into the whole thing, but he defeated me twice," Cindy stopped as she heard an exasperated sigh on the other end.
Victoria sat down on the bed and held her head with her free hand, "Well, umm, just avoid him as best as you can the rest of the time. When we switch back tomorrow, I'll just pretend nothing happened – us girls do that so often anyways that goys should be used to it by now," she sighed, "I'm sure no one else noticed a thing," she paused, hoping nothing would come up about her day.
"Ok, whatever. Did – Jimmy, did he notice anything?" Cindy hesitated.
"Well – he thought I was acting weird, but we got along well I believe. I had to do a lot of chores for getting home late though," Victoria shuddered, "Not doing that any time soon again."
Cindy sighed, "This is all going to be harder than I thought. But, we have one day to pull off, it shouldn't be too bad. Just answer questions in school, hang out with Libby, insult Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen, and you'll be good. Don't think I want to do anything like this again – at least not any time soon. But now I know what it really means to walk in someone else's shows. By the way," Cindy kicked off her painful, but gorgeous, high heeled and diamond studded heels, "Your shoes SUCK."
Victoria rolled her eyes, "Now you know what it's like – being a Princess isn't quite such an appetizing peach, huh?"
"Neither is being a normal kid," Cindy replied as she flopped onto the king sized beg of Victoria's, and momentarily switching the phone to the other ear, "just wait till school tomorrow when you have to face up to Betty Quinlin, the pressures of trying to be smarter than the town genius, all that 'fun' stuff – it's no drive in a limo either."
Though Cindy couldn't see it, she knew Victoria was smirking as the Princess replied, "We'll see Cindy, for now, I'm getting my rest."
"Righty-o," Cindy sighed, "Goodnight Miss Vortex," she mumbled with a yawn, "I shall see you tomorrow – 5 PM sharp."
Victoria gave a sleepy nod, "Of course – goodnight Princess."
With that they both hung up. Cindy got into a sleeping gown made of silk, and Victoria got into PJs that were a tank top and pants set with Happy Bunny on them. The both fell fast asleep simultaneously, not even knowing the events that were ahead for them, or how much Victoria's dream had effect on both of them.
TO BE CONTINUED
By Jessie/Dory
Author Note: Thanks for the reviews! I won't be able to update while I'm in New York, but I'll try to get another chapter up as soon as I can, just don't expect that to be too soon! And for those of you confused about the Pink Llamas – just go to (don't have a www) and you may – sort of – understand a little more. I don't have time to reply to each review, but thanks so much for those of you leaving messages, I'm absolutely loving and appreciating it! Also – eventually there will be Jimmy/Cindy parts, but don't expect that much except for Cindy thinking a lot about Jimmy, it's hard having Jimmy/Cindy moments when they aren't around each other. Lol. Enjoy!
If you've ever had the embarrassment of falling on your face in front of your friends, or even on your butt, you know suddenly your face goes red and you feel like an idiot. Take that percentage of 'fun' and multiply it by two hundred people, add an expensive dress, and add a flight of stairs squared. That sort of equals the amount of embarrassment Cindy endured within 1 minute and 35 seconds of being in the banquet.
It all went completely downhill from there, as if she wasn't all ready falling down hill.
Cindy didn't want to lift her head up, she wanted to pretend this was all a horrible nightmare and she was actually sleeping in her nice and cozy bed. There was no princess, there was no switching, there was no humiliating fencing, and there was no banquet. She opened her eyes and slowly lifted her head to see a lot of feet in expensive shoes.
'Darn it -,' was all she could manage to think before she was suddenly whisked up to her feet. She pushed the little amount of dirt off her dress and expected to come face to face with a body guard, or perhaps Miss Jones to tell her off for tripping. But she didn't, she only saw Josh, who was in a nice outfit suitable for waiting. Since his mother did work for the royal family, he had more fun being someone to wait on people than being waited on. Though Cindy had to admit he looked rather – dare she thought it? Hot, dreamy – a lot like how Jimmy looked on Valentines Day, she sighed at the memory.
But she was waiting for some sort of snappy comment back from him – that's what Jimmy would do. However, instead he said with a smile, "You alright Miss Kingsley? You took quite a fall there. Would you like me to escort you to your table?"
She nodded and smiled back, "Thank you, Josh."
He gave her an odd look as he held out his arm and she took it, for a moment he was silent and then finally spoke, "You never call me Josh."
Uneasily, Cindy gulped – well Victoria never mentioned specific things like that. How was she to get through this without knowing really what Victoria would respond with? She took a deep breath and then sat down, not responding to him, it was rude, but there was nothing else she could do. Things seemed to be starting up as a speaker tried to begin his speech. Josh dashed away quietly to be next to the other waiters and waitresses.
"Excuse me," the speaker started to speak, but there was still a mumble in the room. Cindy grabbed her fork and started tapping on her wine glass to quiet everyone down.
Cling, cling, cling, – CRASH! Cindy's eyes went wide as she stared at the now broken glass, her fork had broken it as if it were a scene straight out of Princess Diaries. She laughed nervously and a waiter quickly walked up and swept up the glass and gave her another one, "It's all right your highness, happens all the time."
She gave a nervous smile, fairly certain he was just being nice and that chances were that something like this rarely happened. She then exhaled her held breath and the rest of the room finally settled down. The speeches began, but Cindy's mind wandered as she pretended to be interested. She looked at the decorations, the chandelier, the gorgeous table settings – it looked like it would be more fun to set up or play with than to just look at while listening to someone drool on about some sort of parking meter issue.
Her eyes glanced at the waiters that stood at the edges of the room, all standing absolutely still and looked as if they were listening intently. Except for – could it be? Cindy almost blushed, but she turned her head away instantly. Josh was starring – at her.
She knew he must have been questioning her intently – she aimlessly wondered whether he liked Victoria or her more. Oh what was she thinking? He had no idea who Cindy Vortex was – he thought, or at least she was hoping he was thinking, that she was the same Victoria – Princess Victoria.
Victoria slumped onto Cindy's bed, absolutely exhausted from the work. The dishes were sort of done – they had fallen and several had broken. Though she was able to catch most of them, it was hard trying to get them back in the counter. After being yelled at by some lady she didn't even know, she eventually was sent to her room and she couldn't have been happier. Cindy's room was already fairly clean and she didn't want to mess too much around so she hid some things in easy to locate spots and was done with it.
She sat up in her bed and looked at the digital clock on the desk, it was around 8:40 by this time, and she was so bored. She knew Cindy would try to call her when she got to bed – which Victoria knew was suppose to be around 10. What to do until then? It seemed like there was nothing that is until she spotted Cindy's computer. She smiled with relief and sat down – seeing a sign on to ROL (Retroville Online, of course) popped up and she noticed Cindy's password was saved.
"Well, it's not like I'd be under a false identity – I'm already pretending to be her," she noted thoughtfully out loud, and then clicked the sign on button. It wouldn't hurt – after all, there was a banquet at this time of night and Cindy wouldn't be able to be online even if she could get near a computer.
Connecting –
Verifying Screen Name and Password -
Starting Services –
"Here we go -," Victoria smiled and looked at the buddy list. To her surprise, Cindy had a lot of people signed on; Victoria barely had that number on her own buddy list. Several Ims popped up – one from a girl with the name "QueenLibs11", another "UltraLords1Fan", and one she assumed was from Jimmy because it said "GeniusAtWork".
She scanned the Ultra Lord one, she knew of the show, but not much of it. The person, who we all know is Sheen, was just saying hi and wondering something about if she thought Libby would want to go to an Ultra Lord convention because he was too shy to ask.
The one she figured was from Jimmy just said 'hey', she figured it was much more safe to respond to him, but didn't just yet. Just in case for some reason she had to sign off fast, people could always assume her screen name was accidentally turned on when she turned on the computer.
What was written in the box from QueenLibs made Victoria gasp out loud and stare blankly at the screen, completely feeling dumbfounded and horrified.
"Hey Cindy! How was Princess Trekking today? I hope you saw her – because I sure did. She told off some weird guard guys who were trying to steal my family's turkey in the middle of downtown! It was so weird because they didn't recognize her until they showed her a ring. I didn't get much of a glimpse of her, but I swear she had this eerie resemblance to you! At first I thought you were standing up for me – but then suddenly she's saying she's the Princess and once everyone got food back, she was gone. So weird – I bet the whole school will be talking about it tomorrow. So anyways – how was your day?"
Victoria hesitated, should she tell Cindy about this? She'll probably be really mad at her for practically blowing it for both of them – but, she had to do the right thing. It was in her nature, it was practically in her blood!
She looked at the three ims, and decided she would answer them.
She told Sheen that he should ask Libby because she probably would say yes if she likes him that much back. She just said hi to Jimmy, and then simply responded to Libby, "That's weird – well my day was good." She wasn't sure if it would be wise to continue talking so she put up an away message and began to pace around the room.
'It'll all work out,' she thought to herself, not like anyone was in the room to hear her anyways, 'That girl didn't even completely think I was Cindy – so it should be just fine. I'll just wear different clothing tomorrow and it'll all be ok.' She sighed and put her hands on her window and stared out, suddenly jumping when she saw that right across the street Jimmy was at his desk in his room. She smiled, Jimmy reminded her a lot of Josh – they were competitive clearly, and somewhat of show-offs. But deep down they were both very nice, very sweet guys. She was glad her accent was not very strong unless she happens to be angry; otherwise Jimmy would have caught her the moment she said, "Can't".
She watched him for a while, and then nearly jumped out of her shoes when he looked up from his work, smiled, and waved. Nervously, Victoria smiled and waved back, then closed the blinds quickly and grabbed a book randomly off the self and sat in bed.
"Reading will take my mind off things -," Victoria looked at the title of the book she had randomly grabbed which was, of course, The Prince and The Pauper by Mark Twain, and she sighed deeply, "Should have seen that coming."
She got up and turned off the screen name, sat in bed and opened the book. Oh how she wished Cindy would be able to call soon.
Cindy aimed carefully, held her fork in just the right way and stabbed her pray – which happened to be a grape. Comically, she missed the grape entirely and it hopped onto the table, she sighed dejectedly.
"Uhm, you know you can use your hands," a lady sitting next to Cindy smiled.
In response, Cindy just blinked for a moment then laughed nervously, "Of course – I knew that."
The lady nodded, almost apologetically, "Of course your majesty."
Cindy smiled nervously and with her thumb and index finger, grabbed a different grape and popped it into her mouth.
A little while ago, music had been playing and numerous people had gotten up and started dancing. Cindy hadn't been paying much attention, but she did notice that most of them really seemed to know what they were doing. As if it were all choreographed for a movie or musical. She absentmindedly stared at the center pieces and listened to the soft music float through her ears. She nearly jumped out of her seat when there was a tap at her shoulder.
"I'm sorry, you ok?" A voice said and she turned around in her seat to see Josh.
Cindy smiled, "Oh – yeah, I just didn't hear you coming."
Josh nodded, "Victoria," Cindy smiled realizing he was calling her – well not her per say, but Victoria, by her first name, "would you like to dance?"
A flush of red spread across Cindy's cheeks, and she held out her hand and he took it, "Yes, actually I would, Josh."
He lead her to the dance floor and they danced closely for a while, in her mind she really thought of herself dancing with someone else, but Josh was nice enough. He dipped her, and then went back to dancing closely. It was a very nice dance, and Cindy could tell he had lessons at some point in his life.
"Hmm," he mumbled as he held her hands and she tried to keep up to his feet – not even knowing the dance that was quite difficult. How she wished she had taken those dancing lessons when her mother had suggested it, but no, she had to be all unique and junk, taking tai chi and river dance lessons instead. Not that she ever doubted her choice, but knowing specific dances that would prove that she was Victoria would have helped right now.
"Something wrong?" she asked, and then thought in her head 'foot here, other foot there – gah! Don't step on his foot!'
He shrugged slightly, spinning her out and then bringing her back into his chest, "Nothing – well, sort of. You just, seem different today."
Cindy blinked and swayed to the rhythm, "Different – how?"
"Well, that whole thing in fencing, you calling me by my first name, you seem so awkward about everything, those things. Actually, you realize this is the first time you've accepted dancing with me? Usually you laugh and say some sort of sarcastic comment. What makes tonight so different? OW!"
"Sorry!" Cindy accidentally stepped hard on his foot with her heel – she stammered for a moment and let her hands disconnect from his. She took a deep breath, and then came a little closer, "Nothing is wrong – absolutely nothing, really."
He nodded with disbelief, "Right, your majesty."
Cindy cocked her head and they began dancing again, "You don't have to call me that you know."
"Call you what?"
She shrugged, "Majesty, Kingsley, highness, whatever. You can call me C-," she caught her self, "Victoria, if you want."
He nodded, "I'd like that."
The continued to dance late into the evening, but in their minds they were dancing with different people.
"NO!" Victoria screamed as she woke up from a nightmare in Cindy's bed. She breathed in and out deeply, realizing it was just a dream and things were ok. She had continued reading The Prince and The Pauper and had drifted asleep with the book on her chest. She looked at the clock – now reading 9:56 PM. She sighed happily; Cindy should be calling at any time now.
She got up and grabbed a nearby paper and wrote down everything she remembered in her dream, she read it out loud and it seemed puzzling to her. Her words were scribbled, yet still legible.
"I was in a dark hall way – I think it was me anyways. I was talking about my father being dead to Josh, and someone grabbed me and Josh disappeared. It looked like the Captain, but even stronger than I remember – he was saying I would have to follow his orders or he'd kill me, Josh, Cindy, and Cindy's friends. For some reason I had no choice but to do his bidding. I was in some weird vehicle going across the ocean, crying to someone I didn't recognize, reaching out as if trying to capture something that had flown way past my reach. Suddenly we're in my castle – my actual castle, back at home. My friends are thrown into endless pits and the Captain and many other guards are all holding up large axes. They all are wearing dark robes like they are grim reapers, and seem to be ready to swing around their axes. Suddenly, a bright light appears in front of me and I'm in my father's old throne. There are so many colors and bright things going around it's hard to describe. An oversized crown is falling and heading for me, I scream when I see it, but I'm suddenly chained by an invisible force. I'm screaming 'STOP, I command you!' but the crown keeps falling. There's a lot of sound going around me, mainly cruel laughing, but I don't know where it's coming from. I'm flailing about, trying to avoid the crown, but then it gets smaller, and it's about to land on my head. Suddenly knives come out of the bottom of the crown and then all I see is red, and just hear a lot of cheering – that's when I woke up and screamed 'NO'."
She exhaled her held breath and realized she had cold sweat pouring down her face. She instantly grabbed a tissue and whipped it off, and whispered, "But – what does it all mean?"
The phone rang suddenly, and in shock Victoria dropped her paper and pencil. She took a deep breath and hesitantly picked them up an d set them on the desk, then grabbing the head piece of Cindy's phone, putting it on and clicking 'answer'.
"Hello?" Victoria asked hopefully.
"Victoria?" Cindy asked as she whispered into the phone from her bedroom. She wasn't quite certain how sound proof the room was, nor if the phone was easy to tap into, but at least if her mom had picked up the phone then she could just say wrong numner.
"Cindy, is that you? Oh thank GOD! I just had this horrible nightmare -," but Victoria was cut off.
Cindy shook her head even if Victoria couldn't see her doing so, "Never mind that – how did your day go? Is anyone suspicious? I think your Josh friend may be catching on – speaking of which he basically caught me when I tripped down the stairs at the banquet. He was very nice about the whole thing though, and he's a great dancer -."
"Wait a second – you danced with Josh?" Victoria's mouth gaped open, "But it's practically tradition for us to snob one another off – he'll think I'm going soft! Did you defeat him in fencing? Oh PLEASE say you did ..," Victoria started pacing back in forth, mumbling something in French, which she was fluent in.
"Well – no, I tried to put my tai chi moves into the whole thing, but he defeated me twice," Cindy stopped as she heard an exasperated sigh on the other end.
Victoria sat down on the bed and held her head with her free hand, "Well, umm, just avoid him as best as you can the rest of the time. When we switch back tomorrow, I'll just pretend nothing happened – us girls do that so often anyways that goys should be used to it by now," she sighed, "I'm sure no one else noticed a thing," she paused, hoping nothing would come up about her day.
"Ok, whatever. Did – Jimmy, did he notice anything?" Cindy hesitated.
"Well – he thought I was acting weird, but we got along well I believe. I had to do a lot of chores for getting home late though," Victoria shuddered, "Not doing that any time soon again."
Cindy sighed, "This is all going to be harder than I thought. But, we have one day to pull off, it shouldn't be too bad. Just answer questions in school, hang out with Libby, insult Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen, and you'll be good. Don't think I want to do anything like this again – at least not any time soon. But now I know what it really means to walk in someone else's shows. By the way," Cindy kicked off her painful, but gorgeous, high heeled and diamond studded heels, "Your shoes SUCK."
Victoria rolled her eyes, "Now you know what it's like – being a Princess isn't quite such an appetizing peach, huh?"
"Neither is being a normal kid," Cindy replied as she flopped onto the king sized beg of Victoria's, and momentarily switching the phone to the other ear, "just wait till school tomorrow when you have to face up to Betty Quinlin, the pressures of trying to be smarter than the town genius, all that 'fun' stuff – it's no drive in a limo either."
Though Cindy couldn't see it, she knew Victoria was smirking as the Princess replied, "We'll see Cindy, for now, I'm getting my rest."
"Righty-o," Cindy sighed, "Goodnight Miss Vortex," she mumbled with a yawn, "I shall see you tomorrow – 5 PM sharp."
Victoria gave a sleepy nod, "Of course – goodnight Princess."
With that they both hung up. Cindy got into a sleeping gown made of silk, and Victoria got into PJs that were a tank top and pants set with Happy Bunny on them. The both fell fast asleep simultaneously, not even knowing the events that were ahead for them, or how much Victoria's dream had effect on both of them.
TO BE CONTINUED